need advise.

• Mar 3, 2010 - 00:12

Hi, I know this is a long term thing, but I really want to help with the development of plug-ins.
The thing is I don´t know how!!
I only have a relative experience programming with pascal and a long time a go, and pd witch kind of looks like qtcreator with the graphical objects connecting and all that but without scripting... and some flash/actionscript.
I see that in order to write scripts for museScore I would need to know some java, c++ and Qt.?.. but HOW MUCH?
on what order would you recommend me learn the different languages?
Do you know/recommend any really basic tutorials to start?
I really need a road-map for this, it seems to be very far from where I stand but I really think I could do it if I put mi mind on it.
Thanks a lot

Comments

• Mar 3, 2010 - 05:19

Java is different from JavaScript. Plugins for MuseScore are written in a variant of JavaScript.

C++ is what MuseScore is written in. But you don't know to know it in order to write plugins.

Qt is a C++ library that Musescore uses to make the software cross-platform. To access some of the functions you might need to understand the documentation for Qt (e.g. what functions are available, what parameters the functions take, what values the functions return, etc.)

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• Mar 3, 2010 - 11:13

THANKS DAVID for clearing that up!!!
so... basically I should learn JavaScript Great!
One more question if you will (really last one and I wont bother you on a while) ( ;
from "plugin development" page:
"MuseScore plugins are written in the language JavaScript 1.5 (ECMA-262) using the QtScript engine"...

JavaScript using Qtscript? Qtscript is a program to write JavaScript?
I have searched for it and I found a lot but frankly I have no clue about what those pages really say so...please some enlightenment.

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• Mar 3, 2010 - 14:22

As David said, the plugins are written in a variant of Javascript named QtScript. The QtScript engine is the part of Qt which handles the plugin execution.

If you really want to make a plugin, I suggest you give take look to the existing ones and understand what they do. Maybe modify them.
Then, decide on what you want your plugin to do, something simple. Maybe ask here if it's possible and try to code it.

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• Mar 4, 2010 - 21:24

Are there any good resources to use when learning about QtScript? I've looked around and haven't found much of anything that is really helpful. Most of the books and examples of JavaScript are all about designing web pages, which isn't what I really want to do, is it? I don't really have any programming experience in high-level languages, but I have programmed a few microchips... 1's and 0's. If someone could point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it greatly.

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• Mar 11, 2010 - 02:15

I use Notepad . It has many other improvements over the built-in Windows Notepad. Probably the three most significant for this context:

  • Once you save the file with the ".js" file extension it will show javascript syntax highlighting . I find it very helpful.
  • It shows line numbers down the left side. Useful when the debugger mentions what line number the error is on.
  • Understands Windows, Unix, and Mac OS line endings. If you've ever opened one of the example plugins with the built-in Windows Notepad you may have notice that every looks it is on one long line

There are plenty other plain text editors with these same three features: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_text_editors

I've only looked at a few of them. For coding probably any of them are an improvement over the built-in Windows Notepad.

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